The council's equality and inclusion commitment to you

The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous legislation and created a single legal framework, providing clearer, streamlined law that is more effective at tackling disadvantage and discrimination.  This Act protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.

Protected characteristics

The Act protects us from being treated less favourably because of certain characteristics. These are known as protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Sex
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or Belief
• Sexual Orientation

The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.

The Public Sector Equality Duty, which is set out in the Equality Act 2010, requires us to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• foster good relations between people from different groups

It describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The Equality Act also says that public bodies must pay 'due regard' to equality. This means that we must:

• remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
• take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people

The Act also states that meeting different needs involves taking steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities.

It states that compliance with the duty may involve treating some people more favourably than others.

Undertaking Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) on new and/or revised policies or services is an effective way of identifying any positive or negative impact that the change may have on different people, according to their protected characteristics. This enables us to demonstrate that we have paid 'due regard' in coming to our decisions.

The law does not mean that no changes can be made, even if they have a negative effect on people. However, we must demonstrate that we have considered the impact that could happen and what steps we have put in place to mitigate against any negative impacts.

Our EIAs are available on our Policies and Procedures database by searching for Equality Impact Assessments.

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish our equality information on an annual basis. This includes demonstrating to you how we are delivering against our corporate equality objectives. We reviewed our equality objectives in January 2022 and between now and 2026 we will:

1. Deliver on the Race Equality Plan
2. Embed the Public Sector Equality Duty principles into our service delivery, commissioning and contract management processes
3. Take actions that will promote a culture of inclusion so that staff, Councillors, stakeholders and partners feel part of an organisation that is safe and inclusive and where people can bring all aspects of themselves to work

You can read the Council’s EDI vision statement below:

SCC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement 

2022-2026